The Gift of Te Fiti
by inkedinserendipity
Summary: The great demigod Maui, Hero to All, meets a highly unfortunate and untimely demise in the face of a dozen three-foot-small warriors of Motunui. Also, even though he doesn't look it, he's a nice pillow.


This piece was originally part of a longer work, but since I had zero desire to edit the rest of it, here's my personal favorite scene. Essentially what happened in the rest of the work is that Te Fiti, a couple years after Moana restores her heart, is still kinda working on this whole giving-life thing. It takes a bit of practice. Kinda like how, when Maui got his hook back, it took him a couple tries to shift correctly. So Maui's in hawk form, flapping on over an island, when this huge, enormous, behemoth of a tree sprouts out of the ground and knocks him out of the sky. In the process, he loses both his hook, and a bit of his shoulder.

Maui sends a little bird, a _ti'otala_ , to get Moana's help. The bird catches her right as she's finding a restorative fruit, a gift from Te Fiti - they crop up every once in a while, magical plants, when someone in Motunui is sick - and convinces her Maui's in trouble. Moana follows the bird to this island, scales the tree, finds Maui, and then discovers he's not sure his hook went when he fell. This is the scene directly after she gets she finds him, heals his shoulder, and stumbles upon the hook. Neither Moana nor Maui are really sure where the tree came from. It just kinda appeared.

For reference, Fetuilelagi and La'ei are both children on Motunui, about ten years old.

Enjoy!

* * *

Finding Maui's hook, which is buried somewhere in this tree, this massive tree that could support an entire island, takes a very long time. So long, in fact, that the sun tinges the horizon with streaks of pink and purple before Maui finally stumbles over the handle, lodged in a half-foot of bark.

Both of them exhale as he excavates it to find it mostly unscathed. With a whoop of triumph, Maui gives it a flip and a swish. In a familiar flash of light, the great arching wings of a hawk stretch in front of her, flexing with relief.

"Well?" he asks, flapping his wings impatiently, stirring the leaves at her feet into a flurry. "You getting out of this tree or not?"

She steps away from the small storm of plant matter. "What, do you want me to jump?"

Yep, that was definitely an eyeroll, though a tad more beady than usual. "I am so ready to be down from here," Maui mutters, and before Moana can process his words, the hawk grabs her by both shoulders and hefts both of them into the air.

Needless to say, it's not as graceful a descent as Moana would have preferred. Being the Chief of Motunui mandates a sort of regality at all moments, and stumbling into a half-roll on a sandy beach after plummeting several feet from the talons of an hawk does not, by any classification, qualify as graceful. Moana's quite proud to say she pulled it off, though. Brush the sand out of her hair, stand tall, stare down anyone making a funny face, and she's set.

Behind her, another flash of light means Maui's turned back human. She ignores him for a moment in favor of handing temporary command over to her sister Arihi - Moana's exhausted - before joining her people in reboarding their boats. Already, a couple of her people are elbowing their way across the sand to greet Maui. Still, even ten years later, he still kinda looks surprised that the village of Motunui would find it so easy to speak with a demigod.

Yep. Shells-for-brains, that's their patron immortal.

As he steps foot on Moana's craft, sauntering ahead of her, a piercing shriek rings through the air. Fetuilelagi, whom La'ei had tapped on the shoulder upon seeing Maui board the boat, catapults herself into the air, shrieking "Maui!"

Instantly, Maui turns toward the voice, grin already spreading along his face. Fetuilelagi flings herself toward him, latching around his neck. As the demigod scoops her up and tosses her with both arms into the air, she lets out another shriek.

La'ei walks straight toward Moana, keeping half an eye on Fetuilelagi as she twists gleefully above the deck. "Aunt Moana," she begins seriously, "How is he?"

Moana crouches into a squat as other children of Motunui scramble over from the rest of the fleet. Fetuilelagi's parents spare a moment to shake their heads ruefully at the demigod hurling their daughter in the air before turning back to adjusting the sails.

"He's doing much better," she returns with equal solemnity, then cracks a grin as Maui is overtaken by the weight of a dozen tiny Motunui children, hollering dramatically about his own demise.

"I'm glad that we found him." La'ei joins her aunt in staring at Maui, and Moana notices with a tiny grin how reminiscent her expression is of Arihi's.

"Heh. Me too."

With a deafening war cry, Maui extricates himself from a pile of giggling children, hook brandished in front of him, which glints ominously in the fading sunlight. Then, he takes off around the deck, leading a full-on chase through the fleet. From one boat to the next he hops, huge feet pounding on the finished wood. But never once does he pull too far ahead of the child-swarm in hot pursuit.

"Aunt Moana, how did he get stuck in a tree?"

"That's a very good question," Moana laughs. "I don't know. That...was one pretty big tree."

"That wasn't a normal tree, was it, Aunt Moana? It was from Te Fiti?"

Moana blinks at the thought. "It sure felt like it. I guess - I mean, she is still growing islands. It could be he got caught while she was sprouting a new one."

The sail of the boat to their right, emblazoned with a bright red spiral, tilts to one side as Maui pounds down upon the deck, tucking and rolling as he leaps from boat to boat. From this close, Moana can hear him huffing and puffing and stifles a laugh. Maui can run kilometers at a time - a short jog like this is nothing to him. He stops to catch his breath, chest heaving exaggeratedly and one palm turned toward the children, pleading for mercy.

"Then the fruits must be an apology," La'ei nods decisively, turning her large brown eyes on Moana. She squashes a squeal before it rises in her throat. Her sister's child is so adorable.

"An apology?"

"Yeah, Aunt Moana. Because Te Fiti caught him in the tree and then gave him the fruits."

"But..." Moana stops, puzzling over the child-logic. "But _I_ was the one who found the fruits."

La'ei looks at Moana like she does Heihei when he's gotten his beak stuck in the wood of a boat again. "But you would go find him," La'ei tells her, like it's obvious. "She didn't have to give them to Maui directly because she knew you would."

Moana opens her mouth to reply, and finds abruptly that she has nothing to say.

La'ei lets out an audible snort and reaches up to pat Moana on the arm. She takes a few steps away, clearly readying herself to leap between Moana's boat the one on which her mother sits, then turns back to give Moana a quick hug.

From several boats away, Moana can see that the small warriors of Motunui are merciless. With a high-pitched battle-cry, they leap toward their island's patron demigod, hands scrabbling over his tattoos like looking for handholds as they climb him as they would a tree. One by one, the tiny mob surges higher and higher over his shoulders.

Now thoroughly burdened with children, Maui plants heavy feet against the wood of the deck and staggers around, much to the amusement of Arihi, who sits conversing with Tane's parents on that deck. While Maui hoots about how tired he is, and how he could just _collapse_ , he shuffles toward the side of the boat. His cargo remains oblivious until, with a huge, comical gasp, he plunges himself into the water.

A dozen indignant screeches tear from separate throats as Motunui's smallest warriors find themselves threatened with imminent dousing. It mutes briefly as they hit the water. Moana is reminded forcibly of Heihei's first interaction with the ocean. Then, several seconds later, a dozen dark-haired heads resurface. They pop up and bob the surface of the waves like coconuts, shouting and grinning. Maui, seeing his advantage, ducks under the surface of the water. With strokes copied from Moana's, he wriggles back toward Moana's boat, leaving the children to haul their bedraggled selves toward the nearest craft.

"What... have you... been feeding... those children?" Maui pants, flopping on the deck.

Toward the side, Arihi speaks a few quick words with her daughter, then stands once more. As she rises, so the sails fly, the embossed cloth puffing as it fills with wind. Slowly, the island retreats as Moana's fleet pulls toward the ocean.

"Pineapple and coconut, mostly," she replies, standing over him as he huffs and puffs toward the dimming sky. "Why, a couple of warriors from Motunui too tough for you to handle?"

Maui's eyes go half-lidded at her words. "Okay first," he says, holding out one finger, "there were at _least_ ten. And second," he continues, holding up another finger before letting his hands flop onto his chest tiredly, "I've already dealt with the worst of the bunch. It was nothing I couldn't handle."

"I assume you mean me."

"No, I mean Arihi's kid - yes of course I mean you, Moana."

The deck of the boat rolls slightly under her as she sits next to him, crossing her legs and leaning backward on her palms to look at the stars. Under the fading light of twilight, the first ones are scarcely visible. She absently raises one hand and finds the stars that make the tattoos of Tilafaiga, just in case, then settles once more when she's satisfied her sister has plotted their course in the right direction.

Not that the gesture is necessary. Arihi's probably checked her own work three times over, even though the stars have just come out. And consulted Sina on top of that.

Out of the corner of her eye, Moana notices Maui staring at her. She glances over, and he instantly looks away. "What?" she asks, amused.

"Nothing."

"Uh-huh. What, do I have a starfish on my face?"

"Oh, so _that's_ what you humans call hair nowadays."

Moana smacks his uninjured shoulder. Maui can hardly repress a snigger. "Honestly," she mutters, then cracks her jaw yawning.

"Awww, is the small Chief tired?" he simpers at her.

"Mhmm," she replies, and before she can think better of it, pivots against her spine to rest her head against his chest.

He lets out a small oof as her hair spreads over his tattoos. Instantly, his entire body freezes. "That tired, eh?" he manages.

"Yep," she says, word marred by another huge yawn. She flops her entire body again, spreading her arms and trying to align her neck comfortably around his chest. It's practically a cliff from his ribs to the bottom of the boat. Disgruntled by the crick she can already feel forming in her neck, she shuffles until her shoulders rest against his side, then hums in relief. "Much better. You make an excellent pillow, you know."

He scoffs, but the effect is ruined by the fact that he hasn't so much as fidgeted a finger. "Us demigods, we're good at everything."

She flips onto her side before realizing that that's an even worse idea and flipping back. Instead, she just turns her head toward him. His arms, frozen pillowing his skull, twitch as Mini-Maui bites off his own nails in the shadows of Maui's biceps.

"You're not going to break me," she tells him, amused.

"Ha, I know!" he says again, but this time he actually relaxes a bit, releasing one hand to let it flop parallel to her. Mini-Maui races from his bicep to his shoulder, relaxing a bit as he settles into his small home. "I'm practically gentle. Especially compared to, I dunno, Glittershell. Or Te Ka."

Frowning, Moana pinches him. "Hey, be nice about Te Ka."

"What do you mean, be nice? She was a literal _lava monster!_ "

"Yeah, because you stole her _literal heart!_ "

Maui frowns at her, but eventually settles again, ignoring the satisfied smirk growing across Moana's lips. "You're pretty irritating sometimes, you know that? Really, really annoying."

Moana nestles her head more snugly against her head, snorting wryly to let him know that she's letting him have the last word. Just because she's such a gracious Chief.

Far above their heads, the pinks and blues of the sky dim to deep, crimson purples, before settling gently into an inky blackness that starkly silhouettes the stars above. Their reflections glint off the water to Moana's side, playing their shapes along the mast of the boat that drifts over them, painting it with flecks of silver. The ocean patters against the side of the boat in a comforting rhythm, like the beat to a melody, the warm spray from the ocean soothing against her face.

Through her mass of hair, Moana can feel Maui's chest rising and falling evenly. Layered with the soothing sound of the ocean, its solid comfort lulls her to sleep.

* * *

Hey, everyone! If you liked this piece or the rest of my writing, you can win one of your own! Follow me on tumblr at inkedinserendipity dot tumblr dot com, then reblog the post under inkedinserendipity dot tumblr dot com slash tagged slash giveaway. Entries close in three days!

My personal headcanon is that Moana taught Maui how to swim. I know he can kinda do breaststroke a bit, as we saw when he tried to hurl himself off the boat and away from Moana, but there's also the line "Maui can do anything but float!" in _You're Welcome_ , so I like the idea that he learns how to _not_ drown from Moana. Which, admittedly, is just another sappy way for Moana to keep pulling him forward. Out of his own self-esteem issues, away from the family that abandoned him, and into a new one, that loves him for who he is.

Thanks for reading!

Glossary:  
La'ei - a Samoan name meaning fashion, in a generic sense. In this 'verse, the daughter of Arihi, who will rule Motunui after Moana passes.

Arihi - Pacific Island name meaning noble. In this 'verse, the younger sister of Moana, who helps Moana rule Motunui by taking care of the details that Moana is sometimes too hotheaded and determined to consider carefully before deciding.

Fetuilelagi - Pacific Island name meaning star. A very energetic preteen, who learns everything about sailing with enthusiasm. Sometimes too much enthusiasm. Fun fact: her birth name was Fetu, a male name, before she realized she was female. At that point, she lengthened her name to Fetuilelagi.

Tane - Pacific Islander meaning man. One of the more empty-headed kids on Motunui.

Tilafaiga - twin sister to Taema in Samoan mythology. One of the two goddesses of tattoo, or _tatau_. While learning the art of tattoo from Tui Fiti - which I headcanon as being Te Fiti - she was kidnapped by Saveasi'uleo. Saveasi'uleo and Tilafaiga later conceived Nafanua, the Samoan goddess of war.

On a semi-unrelated note, I also believe that Tilafaiga is the holder of history for the Samoan peoples. Because tattoos hold such cultural and personal significance, it makes sense to me that Tilafaiga would, as the goddess of tattoos, know so much about the culture of each people and their history. Going off of this, with Tilafaiga as a knower of history and culture, I like the idea of Tilafaiga being a constellation typically used for navigation. Going along with the line from the Moana album's outtake _More_ that goes "You know what lies ahead if you remember what's behind you", it'd be a neat link between Tilafaiga's role in history and going forward, or voyaging.


End file.
